Fri, 28th August Cardiff 19°
Nation.Cymru wordmark
Advertisement

News

Fox hunting 'still rife' two decades after it was banned

By Mark Mansfield
Photo Danny Lawson PA Images

Martin Shipton

New figures released in advance of Boxing Day hunt “parades” in Wales suggest fox hunting is still rife despite it being nearly 20 years since the Hunting Act came into force.

National animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports – which was the driving force behind the original hunting ban – says the figures show why stronger fox hunting laws are needed to prevent the widescale chasing and killing of foxes and the associated havoc inflicted on rural communities.

The figures for Wales reveal:

* 11 foxes reported being pursued by hunts

* 15 reports relating to suspected illegal hunting incidents

* 49 cases of hunt havoc

The Flint and Denbigh Hunt is the hunt with the highest number of reports, including being seen chasing the most foxes (7), being involved in the highest number of suspected illegal incidents (9), and the most hunt havoc cases (21) in Wales.

[mid-content-banner]

Cub hunting season

The figures were collated since the beginning of August, encompassing both the cub hunting season and the first six weeks of the fox hunting season, which started in November.

Chris Luffingham, acting chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “These figures show that the Welsh Boxing Day hunt parades are a charade, hiding a world of brutality that has never gone away in the 20 years since the Hunting Act was introduced.

“It’s time for change and for the UK Government to urgently set out a timetable of measures to strengthen hunting laws and stop fox hunting once and for all.

“Not only does so-called trail hunting need to be banned, but the loopholes in the Hunting Act need to be removed, and custodial sentences introduced for those caught breaking the law.”

The reports relating to suspected illegal hunting include foxes being pursued by hounds but also other behaviour by hunts that points to the pursuit of a wild animal rather than a pre-laid trail.

[lower-mid-content-banner]

Hunt havoc

Hunt havoc includes incidents where hounds ran amok on roads; trespass; livestock worrying; and attacks on pet cats or dogs; badger setts being damaged to prevent foxes escaping; distress being caused to the public; and other wildlife such as deer being chased.

Mr Luffingham said: “If hunts were really following pre-laid trails and trail hunting as they constantly claim, none of the recorded incidents would have occurred.”

Figures for England and Wales reveal that over the same period :

* 186 foxes were reported as being pursued by hunts;

* There were 220 reports relating to suspected illegal hunting incidents; and

* 553 cases of hunt havoc.

Data was collected throughout the cub hunting season and the first six weeks of the fox hunting season from reports into the League’s Animal Crimewatch service and other monitors.

Cub hunting takes place in autumn and is how hunts train their hounds to kill foxes by targeting fox cubs, in preparation for the main fox hunting season.

Trail hunting

The Labour Party general election manifesto contained a commitment to ban trail hunting, and UK Environment Secretary Steve Reed pledged to eliminate fox hunting within its first term in office.

Polling commissioned earlier this year by the League and carried out by FindOutNow with further analysis by Electoral Calculus showed more than three quarters (78%) of the Welsh public supported strengthening the Hunting Act.

Mr Luffingham said: “These figures are just the tip of the iceberg as they don’t show the cruelty being inflicted on foxes in remote rural areas away from the public gaze.

“But they make it crystal clear that the hunts are attempting to deceive the criminal justice system, and the police, courts and Crown Prosecution Service need new powers to help them enforce the law and end the cruelty being inflicted on wildlife in the countryside.”

Fox hunting was banned in England and Wales when the Hunting Act came into force on February 18 2005, three months after it gained Royal Assent on November 18, 2004.

The UK Government has responsibility for fox hunting laws in both Wales and England, as it is a reserved matter.

The hunting world invented so-called trail hunting a few years later but this has become increasingly discredited. Trail hunting has been described by Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman, the most senior police officer in England with responsibility for fox hunting crime, as a “smokescreen for illegal fox hunting”. He has also described illegal hunting as “prolific”.

Members of the public can contact the League’s Animal Crimewatch service on 0300 444 1234, [email protected] or WhatsApp at 0755 278 8247 to report incidents of animal cruelty.

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News

12 comments

Erisian

Oh for a swarm of drones to keep an eye on these "sports".

Reply
Jeff

Remove the dogs. No "accidental" ripping to bits of pets and foxes.

Reply
Arfon Jones

The current Hunting Act is weak, ineffective and full of loopholes. It needs strengthening. Fox hunting for recreation is cruel and archaic and needs to be properly banned.

Reply
Brychan

The reason why you're no longer a PCC Arfon is because you always identify problems but never solutions. How is it to be strengthened? What offences need to be defined? How is the offence to be detected? What evidence is needed to prove a transgression? How is policing resource to be used in enforcing any new offences?

Reply
Mab Meirion

Going from dogs to humans... Why don't the cops develop a knife blade grabbing electro-magnet to go with their tasers instead of the present summary executions...

Reply
J Jones

As expected Jack, as long as it's not you getting your limbs ripped off in a tortuous death it's an acceptable form of entertainment for a bunch of toffs.

Reply
Brychan

May we compare the 11 incidents in Wales of a fox being pursued by hunts (unkown outcome) to the number of children dismembered or killed in Wales from dangerous dogs? That should decide where police resources are deployed.

Reply
J Jones

It's not a matter of one sides argument against another, it's about allowing evidence gathering to expose the truth. Simple answer it to allow drone monitoring of trail hunting, but obviously the ones with something sinister to hide will be against this.

Reply
Mab Meirion

It's Boxing Day Jack, how many animals, winged or otherwise were slaughtered to feed the 70 million yesterday, the millions of life-long caged creatures ready for the annual cull...

Reply
Y Cymro

Anyone who gets pleasure out if Fox hunting in my eyes are below contempt. There are much humane ways of controlling the population than using hounds. And why there are loopholes cynically left in legislation that allow hunts circumnavigate the law to still kill foxes beggars belief? Close those loopholes. Shame on you Labour! A method of stopping the fox population is making sure make & female foxes are sterile. And yes, shooting the fox can be a method used, not to kill it, but done as an aid to sedate and sterilise it. Also making sure any livestock are properly secured and contained will stop any loss to farmers. Sadly some livestock will be killed because foxes need to feed themselves and their young. After all they have as much right to the countryside as we do. More so in fact. And less we forget. Not all poultry are killed by foxes. Domesticated dogs & cats kill chickens & hens too. Are they to be hunted by those dressed in their finery using the excuse of country tradition or culture? Also, I find the idea that children present during the hunt are blooded using a tail cut off a killed fox revolting. If this is part of civilised society is one that's regressed. We continually hear how those hunt supporters are animal lovers . But what about those hounds when they serve their purpose who are shot in the head and dumped like litter in bins. This has happened and documented by the League Against Cruel Sports highlighted in this article and other organisations. The excuses made by those pro-fox hunting for its continuation is ludicrous. I can recall there were no foxes on the Isle of White until introduced so the landed gentry could hunt. And there are instances where artificial sets have been created by hunt supporters to breed foxes which goes against those who say hunting is a form of pest control. Another myth is that the weak & infirm foxes are targeted by the hunt. If so, why then are they killing the weak and leaving the strong virile fox to breed producing more cubs therefore increasing the population which again goes against the idea that they are controlling numbers when in fact they are responsible for its increase. Who are they fooling? Not me! What about those who say when they hunt 9 times out of 10 a fox isn't caught and they just enjoy the ride and camaraderie. This goes against argument how using hounds is the most efficient way of controlling the population. How is it when they usually can't find a fox to hunt? Another reason for its continuation is that any ban would destroy countryside tradition. No it wouldn't! If that's the case, why are hunt supporters hostile towards drag hunting? Hunting with hounds is still be permitted , although with limitations, but huntsmen & women can continue to dress up and enjoy the countryside, meaning thousands of horses & hounds not being put down, and he only this ending would be the kill not the thrill. So if indeed those supporters of bloodsports are custodians of the countryside and agree that badger baiting and cock fighting is deemed abhorrent, so is fox hunting too. The idea that dozens of hounds ripping apart a live animal and that it dies immediately a proven lie. There is great suffering involved from its pursuit to its killing. Time fox hunting was finally consigned to dustbin of history.

Reply
John Davies

What annoys me about the hunt is not so much the foxes and occasional household pets that get killed in a most unpleasant manner, (bad though that is), but the way they express the rural class structure. “Hunt havoc" indeed and not all of it is accidental by any means. Just as, back in the Middle Ages, the mounted aristocracy rode over the farmers’ land and were followed by a thuggish trail of men-at-arms who dealt summarily with anyone who objected, so today the riders are followed by a nasty coterie of “hunt followers”, very ready to offer violence to anyone who objects.  If you live in the country and speak out against the hunt, you may find your tyres get slashed. Or worse. I knew a case of a farmer who banned the hunt from his land. One dark night he was rolling home with a skinfull after a particularly good day at the sales and was set upon and badly beaten. The culprits were never found. This sort of intimidation is constant. It enables the hunts to claim that since few people in the country speak out against them, they represent “real” rural opinion. In my experience many country people (not all of them urban incomers by any means) cordially hate the hunts, but have too much regard for their own comfort and even safety to say so openly.

Reply
Brychan

Am wondering how such a new law will be worded and enforced. Perhaps an offence of riding a horse with a loud coat or perhaps blowing a horn in the countryside in a provocative manner. The reason why the existing hunting legislation specifies setting or allowing a dog on a fox is a crime because that is a defined act. There are some hunts such as the Banwen which chases human runners. Perhaps the crime of impersonating a fox. It was only a statement in the Labour Party manifesto to farm a few votes from some patrons of trendy coffee shops in Shoreditch, not real government.

Reply

Leave a reply

Replying to Y Cymro Cancel

Anyone who gets pleasure out if Fox hunting in my eyes are below contempt. There are much humane ways of controlling the population than using hounds. And why there are loopholes cynically left in legislation that allow hunts circumnavigate...

Comments are reviewed before they appear.